Sunday, October 16, 2011

Back from Vacation

Hey everyone...I'm back from vacation. We took a family vacation to Okaloosa Island , FL which is actually considered to be part of Ft Walton with Destin on the other side. It is such a beautiful place! When I say family vacation that means that Maggie went with us...YAY! Her first trip ever. I wasn't sure how she would take the ride there, since the longest she has ever been in a car is about an hour and a half. This was a 9 hour trip, but we just couldn't leave our 13 year old baby behind this time. Here she is just relaxing on her bed with all the luggage behind her, and let me tell you....she did GREAT! ﻿Tony laid his back seats down and we made her a bed right behind us, but in between us. I wasn't sure how she would like that either, because she has always been in the front seat with me. Maggie was a trooper though!

Bathroom and water pit stop. :o) ﻿

Our pet friendly condo was right on the beach with a sand dune behind it. We were on the 2nd floor with a perfect view. Out side to the right of our condo was a little grass area for the dogs to use the bathroom, and this lead right up to the sand dunes. On our first morning I took Maggie up and let her sit on the sand dune to view the ocean. She loved it!!! I think she could have sat there all day.

Every morning we sat on the balcony and watched dolphins play while drinking our coffee or tea. One morning this man was out paddle boarding with the dolphins. I will do this some day! I love...love...love dolphins! I was so glad that we got to watch them play every morning. This was the first time that I've ever seen dolphins like this while at the beach, and we go to the beach almost every year if at all possible.

One morning we decided to take Maggie out to see the ocean even though there was a BIG sign that said "No dogs allowed on the beach". Since Maggie is crippled in her back end, I didn't really see what the harm would be in taking her out to sit on the beach by the water. It's not like she can take off and run all over the beach. I do wish she could have though. If she was able to run, she would have been all over that place. She loves the ocean to. She would just sit there and sniff in the air and look out at all the water. I'm sure she was wondering what it was. :o) Maggie was NOT a very happy camper when she had to go back in.

Maggie hated being inside the condo. She wanted to be outside. We would come and go a lot, so she wouldn't be alone for a long period of time. We hated to leave her inside like that. When we were at the condo and weren't at the beach, this is where Maggie was....on the balcony. We even had to make her some shade. :o) When we would go inside, she would start crying like a child that wasn't getting there way...ha

Snoozing on the balcony...now this is what vacation is all about!﻿

Yes, there were some chilly nights on the beach. We had Maggie with us here, but couldn't seem to get her in the picture with us. You can see the top of her head though. ﻿

Okay, onto some food. I searched and searched for a vegan restaurant, but never found one. So, I had to make do and actually had some great meals. Of course there were a few not so great meals...as always. One of my favorites was the gnocchi that we got at this little Italian restaurant...OMG...it was sooooo good.

This was actually the first time I had gnocchi, and it for sure won't be the last. I will be trying my hand at making some of these very soon. Tony got some kind of ravioli that he said was awesome and was the best that he had every had.

One night we went to the Hogs Breath Saloon. To my surprise they had a fantastic sounding salad. We started off with an appetizer of fried mushrooms that were the best that I've ever had. And can you believe that I didn't even get a picture of them.... I did take a picture of my salad though. I got the Calypso Salad which was a fresh green salad with mango cilantro salsa tossed with an Asian peanut dressing. Wow, this was the best salad that I've ever had out. The combination of the salsa and the dressing was out of this world!

Tony was wanting some seafood (I know....), so we went to the Shrimp Basket. I saw on line where they had a veggie plate, so I was pretty exited about going. As you can see, they loaded me up with veggies. The potatoes did have butter on them, so I took them back for Maggie to eat, which she appreciated very much. Other than that, the veggies hit the spot!

View from our balcony...

One day we were on our way back to the condo from Destin and this is what we saw. :o) I guess you could say this if Florida fishing....lol A chair on a surf board...now this man knows how to fish!

Beautiful sunset on our last night.

Maggie's view of a sunset from the balcony (her 2nd favorite spot).

On our last night we went to a Mexican restaurant called Tijuana Flats. Very cool place with a very cool atmosphere. If I wasn't so shy about walking around in front of people taking pictures, I would have taken tons of the walls. I wish we had one of these where we live.

The coolest part about about this place is that the patio is pet friendly. They had a sign up that said "your well behaved pets are welcome on our patio". Darn, we could have taken Maggie to eat with us. Have you ever heard of a restaurant being pet friendly? They even had dog bowls out for our fury kids. :o)

I got a veggie burrito with black beans. Again...the best burrito that I've ever had! They also had some great salsa. It had a sweet taste to it...very yummy!

Maggie saying good bye to the ocean as the sun rises. She so loved the beach! Vacationing with Maggie was a new experience for us. It was great and I hope that we are able to take her back to the beach again.

Us saying good bye to the beach and ocean...boo... I will live at the beach one day! It's my favorite place to be. What is it about the beach and ocean that makes a person feel revived? It was so good for Maggie too. She had life back in her eyes again and actually got around better while she was there
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I took some more food pictures, but I think I took them with my phone. If they're blog worthy, I'll post them later. I'm sure I have a lot of catching up to do by reading your blogs, so I'll be checking out what everyone has been up to on and off today! Have a great Sunday!

13 comments:

Wow, Michelle, does it look like ever had a great time! The views are gorgeous and all of those shots of Maggie are perfect. Definitely keepsakes. That's awesome that she had such a wonderful time there. :)

I've been getting wanderlust pretty bad the last week since the weather turned cruddy & this makes me want to go somewhere even more!

What a great post! It looks like you had an amazing vacation and the photos are amazing! Maggie is such a cutiepants and the photos of you and Tony are great. My brother got married in Destin and it is such a beautiful area. Glad you enjoyed your week!

What a great vacation! I'm sure Maggie loved it, too. I'm impressed with how natural Tony takes the pics of you guys. They are centered and focused - good job. All the food sounds good, and I love how the dishes were your favorite ever!

So glad you had a great trip! Fun to see your pictures. Was it hard to find a place that allowed dogs? We always spend so much money on boarding for our dogs, and I wish we could take them with us more. I love the restaurant that came equipped with dog bowls.

Thanks everyone! Jenny, I found the place where we stayed on Vrbo.com. You can select pet friendly and it will list all the places that accept pets. I think it cost us $60 extra for Maggie and it was well worth it. :0). Check it out the next time you get ready to go somewhere.

I'm so happy for you! It looks like it was a wonderful trip :) The food looks good, especially that burrito. I know what you mean about the ocean, it was so nice being near the water in Vancouver this summer! Sometimes being in the middle of the woods can be very comforting as well. Maggie looks so tuckered out in that first photo!